Just watching Head to Head on Al Jazeera, presented by the remarkable journalist, Mehdi Hasan. He is giving a real pummelling to Richard Dawkins. It's amazing how, when presented with evidence that doesn't fit with his worldview, then the good professor just dismisses or ignores it. He will even lapse into the kind of self-justification that he would never allow in those who have religious belief.
So, when presented with research evidence that the major reasons for terrorism are geopolitical and nationalistic, he claims to have other evidence that it is to mainly do with wanting to go to a martyr's heaven but, despite dealing with this issue all of the time, he is not able to present the evidence beyond saying "I have read elsewhere...".
When he is put on the backfoot, he becomes snidey and nasty and is willing to make the most unbelievable statements to protect his hypothesis. For instance, he even disagreed with the proposition that atheism was an important part of the communist regimes of Stalin and Mao Zedong, even agreeing with the dumbfounded Mr Hasan's suggestion that Karl Marx's reference to religion as an "opiate of the masses" was just a "throwaway line".
I don't know why people are so impressed with the venerable professor, he seems like an elevated pub bore to me.
Also, to those who don't take Al Jazeera seriously as a media outlet, you really need to catch up with it sometime.
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